I didn’t know that butter in Europe is different from American butter until I began reading Julia Child’s cookbook. This morning I went to the grocery store to pick up fresh butter, eggs and cream–the basics for French cooking. My eggs and butter are less than fresh–well, old, really. I didn’t have any cream in the house. I also picked up some fresh, full-fat cheese. All this came to just under $30. I just bought groceries, and I am planning a trip to Costco on Monday. The most wonderful part of the trip was that I found unsalted European style butter at my nearby grocery store. The store is on the street behind my house. It’s an easy walk on most days. European butter, which I have never tasted, has 10 more calories per tablespoon than American butter. All I had was unsalted sweet butter, which works well, but may not give the preferred taste to the sauces, although I’m sure it’s fine for baking. So why the quick trip to the store? I need to test my sauce to see if eggs and cream can be folded in using cornstarch-based sauce. Flour is supposed to help the eggs go into the sauce. So I wonder if my sauce will work just as well.